Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day or Armistice Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. Remembrance Day On 11 November 1918 – at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month – the Armistice was signed, effectively ending the First World War. Originally known as Armistice Day, Remembrance Day marks this anniversary. It is the day on which we remember and honour all Australians who fought, died, and suffered in the First World War and in all the wars and conflicts that followed. Remembrance Day is an international day of commemoration, unlike ANZAC Day, which is a day of remembrance unique to Australia and New Zealand. The day was specifically dedicated by King George V on 7 November 1919 as a day of remembrance for members of the armed forces who were killed during World War I.

The Initial or Very First Armistice Day was held at Buckingham Palace commencing with King George V hosting a "Banquet in Honour of the President of the French Republic" during the evening hours of November 10, 1919. The first official Armistice Day was subsequently held on the grounds of Buckingham Palace on the Morning of November 11, 1919. This would set the trend for a day of Remembrance for decades to come.

The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem "In Flanders Fields". These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red colour an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war.

Ode of Remembrance

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow oldAge shall not weary them, nor the years condemnAt the going down of the sun and in the morningWe will remember them